Monthly Archives: April 2017

Tapping into the power of social media during live events

As brands continue to pour more dollars into social media, one of the most effective opportunities for targeted messaging, engagement, and intelligence continues to be live events. At Earshot, we have seen engagement rates and share rates more than triple for brands that are able to effectively message event attendees “in the moment” or retarget them post-event. Whether it’s a concert, sporting event, or business conference, marketers have a unique opportunity to extend their reach and create a more lasting impression with attendees through social media. Event-goers are a captive audience, most are active on social, and as a result, it opens up a natural communication channel between brands and relevant attendees when done properly. If you are not doing event-based social media marketing already, here are 4 ways to consider getting immediate value from live events through social: 1.Surprise & Delight One of the tried and true ways to capture earned media is to find relevant influencers who will share a unique brand experience to their audience of followers. The key is finding the right person – the “needle in the haystack” at these events – and providing the right “delight” so they are inspired to share. Upgraded seats, free gear, or backstage access all create instant brand affinity and amplify the reach of the brand beyond the event to those following this person on social media. By using the proper tools to surface and engage quickly, marketers can now surprise & delight in seconds at hundreds of events every year. 2. Intelligence and Insights Diving deeper into the profiles and opinions of attendees can reveal invaluable clues... read more

Taking Social Customer Service to the Next Level

The recent events with United Airlines and Pepsi have reinforced the impact that social media can have on a brands’ reputation and the importance of good social customer service. It’s no longer enough to give community managers or social care teams a screen full of brand mentions and expect them to excel in their jobs. The time required to make sense of whether the post or handle is relevant is time that could be spent engaging more customers or influencers. One of the main challenges is prioritization and being able to create sophisticated rules for routing relevant posts to the right person at the right time. If brand mentions are the initial filter, other variables to consider should include location, loyalty status, social influence, sentiment, and other post / person level data points that can be captured and applied with the right tools. Simple rules-based approaches to prioritization are not enough – it requires a dynamic, heuristic-based approach to properly surface the right posts in real time. In addition to more intelligent routing and prioritization, applying these variables can help social teams capture relevant posts missed by typical brand mention filters (e.g. when a brand is misspelled or not mentioned at all). In many cases, posts should be routed to the employees who are best equipped to resolve the issue offline. For example, a hotel chain may want to provide access to the GM’s at all of their properties the brand mentions coming from their property as a way to stay ‘tuned in’ to what is happening and to take action offline at the property level. If five different... read more